


From Mother to Daughter

by silverrstardust



Category: RWBY
Genre: Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Swearing, Mommy Issues, Other, Ruby Rose (RWBY) Needs a Hug, Stress, Volume 6 (RWBY), adopted sister, baby adrian being cute, someone telling ruby she needs to talk about her problems
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:35:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28214046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverrstardust/pseuds/silverrstardust
Summary: “Ruby?” Saphron calls out worriedly, pulling her son close.“He’s a lucky kid, you know?” Ruby continues with a haunted look mirrored in her eyes, and a wavering, empty smile on her face. “Big family… two m-moms.” Her voice cracks on the word ‘moms’, and Saphron’s heart falls.Oh.aka. Saphron wakes up in the middle of the night to coax a crying Adrian back to sleep, only to bump into Ruby Rose, already comforting her infant son. What it turns into isn’t what she’s expecting, but she’s glad it happened, because now she finds a new little sister in Ruby.
Relationships: Ruby Rose & Saphron Cotta-Arc, Saphron Cotta-Arc/Terra Cotta-Arc
Comments: 11
Kudos: 62





	From Mother to Daughter

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [one day we'll get there (over the rainbow)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16980498) by [QueenPersephoneofHades](https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenPersephoneofHades/pseuds/QueenPersephoneofHades). 



> so uh... this is a thing.
> 
> Warning: mild cursing ahead! Very little, again, but if its not you’re thing, the warning’s there!

Saphron Cotta-Arc can’t help but groan when she hears the wails of her son interrupt the tranquility of the night. Her wife, Terra, shifts restlessly at her side, but Saphron places a reassuring hand on her shoulder, wordlessly ordering her to stay in bed. She slides out from under the covers and makes her way to the nursery. 

The floorboards in the hallway are ridiculously creaky. She winces at every step, pausing to make sure that none of the guests downstairs have woken up to the resounding cries of Adrian. But then she’s hit with the frightening realization that there are no cries at all. Not anymore. The house has fallen completely silent, just as it had been before, with nothing but a collective gentle snores from Jaune’s friends coming from the living room.

If everyone is downstairs, and Terra is in bed, then who…?

“... there you go! That wasn’t so hard, was it?” A soft, gentle voice reaches her ears as she stands in the doorway. Inside it’s completely dark aside from the nightlight’s glow bouncing off the walls and the floors. 

The youngest member of Jaune’s little world-saving group, Ruby, has got her son in his arms and is trying to coax him back to sleep, and it seems to be working. She watches as Ruby touches noses with him and rocks him back and forth on her hip, all the while complaining about his weight and how he must really like cookies like she does. Saphron’s confusion melts into a smile as she realizes there was nothing to be worried about after all.

“He seems to like you,” Saphron says, and Ruby jumps with a short little ‘Oh!’, tightening her grip on Adrian as she whirls around to face her. Saphron suddenly finds herself face to face with piercing silver eyes. “A lot apparently.”

Ruby tries to immediately apologize. “I’m sorry! I should’ve been out of here by now but I just heard him crying and I know you guys have been busy and I was already awake so I just thought-”

“It’s okay,” Saphron laughs quietly. “Thank you for your help.”

Ruby bows her head and smiles in return. “Do you… want to take him now? He’s kind of really heavy.” She adds with a harsh whisper.

“Aren’t you the kid who wields the scythe?” Saphron counters. Ruby laughs, shrugging like hefting a scythe as heavy as a solid chunk of iron is no big deal. 

There’s a moment of silence as Adrian cozies right into Saphron’s embrace. She feels his breathing slow against her chest, and he makes cute little cooing noises when he sleeps. She rocks tenderly, and when she turns her head, she can see Ruby watching her closely. When she realizes that Saphron is looking, she looks away, shame and sadness dragging her gaze down. Saphron frowns to herself, hoping that those bright steel eyes don’t have super secret night vision powers to see it. 

Adrian has settled down so she lays him back in his crib then motions Ruby to follow back outside the room. There’s something about her and Adrian that is upsetting Jaune’s first friend at Beacon and clearly the small leader isn’t willing to talk about it openly. As Jaune’s big sister she is not about to let that happen.

“You doing okay?” Saphron asks in a low tone. 

The reaction is almost instant. Ruby curls inward on herself, wrapping her arms around her torso and looking with melancholy at the floor. “Wh-what? Psssh, I’m great. Really…. really swell.” She doesn’t seem to believe the lie she’s telling either.

She’s so much like Jaune in his mannerisms and nervous speech habits that it’s no wonder the two became close friends. It makes her really easy to see through. Saphron raises an eyebrow. 

“Okay, fine. I guess I’m not… doing the greatest,” She admits. “It’s not your problem, okay? You just focus on your family.” 

“My family? My family is fine,” Saphron says. “But when my baby brother’s friends aren’t, I make it my responsibility to make sure they are, especially when they’re guests in my own home _and_ they’re taking care of my son.”

Ruby huffs out a breath and turns around, arms folded in a pout. “If you think I’m dumping all my problems on you when you have a family to worry about, then you’re- you’re... crazy-pants!” Apparently she’s just as stubborn as Jaune, too. In fact, she might’ve met the first person who’s _more_ stubborn than him. Impressive. 

It’s not going to stop Saphron Cotta-Arc. Saphron is willing to take those “crazy-pants” and wear them like a badge of honour.

“Why are you really awake, Ruby?” She asks softly. 

“I’m a light sleeper, I told you. I heard Adrian and I thought I’d help.”

Yeah, _bullshit_. And she would know. She married a woman who’s really good at sussing out bullshit. 

“Okay, so not babysitting, then,” Saphron concludes. “Lemme guess… nightmares?”

There’s a pause. “... No?”

Bingo.

“Ruby, it’s okay to admit it,” Saphron breathes out, placing a hand on the small girl’s stiff shoulder. “Everyone gets them. You’ll feel better if you talk about it.”

Ruby tugs her shoulder out of her grasp and turns around. “Except I _can’t_ talk about it, Saph, so just drop it, okay?” She snaps.

The sudden outburst is a shocking change from the silence before, enough that Adrian begins bawling again. Both young women turn to face the door next to them, and Saphron sees Ruby’s face just drop with guilt. She breezes past Saphron at an alarming speed to get to Adrian in the crib, showering him with comforting, soothing apologies as she lifts him into her arms.

Saphron is stunned to stillness. She watches as the young girl practically pleads to the infant to forgive her. The repeated “I’m sorries” are overkill, enough that it's stressing her out. She launches herself forward, pulls Adrian a little too roughly from Ruby’s hold, and begins shushing her son to relax. Cries slow to whimpers, until finally, the room falls to silence once more. 

And Ruby is standing there in shock, _shaking._

Saphron gasps softly, only now realizing what she’s done. “I’m…” She stops herself. She doesn’t want to say she’s sorry. Her heart is still fluttering dangerously out of control. “I didn’t mean to-”

There’s a sniffle, and she looks down to her son, but Adrian is fine. His eyes are closed. She looks up again, and sees the pools of silver in Ruby’s eyes swimming.

“It’s okay,” Ruby’s voice squeaks, sounding like she’s choking on tears.. She’s got her arms wrapped up tightly around her chest. “He needs y-you. I shouldn’t’ve interfered.”

“Ruby?” Saphron calls out worriedly, pulling her son close. She hates how out of control such a simple thing has made her. She hates that she made Ruby think it was all her fault that Saphron overreacted. 

“He’s a lucky kid, you know?” Ruby continues with a haunted look mirrored in her eyes, and a wavering, empty smile on her face. “Big family… two m-moms.” Her voice cracks on the word ‘moms’, and Saphron’s heart _falls_.

_Oh._

The floodgates open and suddenly Ruby’s composure just collapses. Faint sobs and whimpers wrack her form as she curls in on herself, knees buckling to the floor. Suddenly met with this unexpected situation, Saphron gives her son one last check, placing him safely in the crib before dropping to a crouch and crawling next to the broken girl on the floor.

Saphron pulls the red cloaked girl in for a hug the next second she gets. Once she has Ruby close, she understands everything. She feels the heavy weight of responsibility that has been draped over this girl’s shoulder and chest. She feels the fear, the anxiety, and the trauma that’s been shoved carelessly under a rug. 

“I- I needed h-her too.” Ruby gasps out. “B-but she le-eft me all alone a-and-“

Saphron doesn’t know anything about Ruby apart from what Jaune told her in the letters that he has sent her from when he was still in school. She doesn’t need to, though. She can fill in the blanks. “Ruby, you’re not alone,” She assures, rubbing her back gently. “There’s a whole room of people downstairs who care for you just as much as she did.”

“They always say I-I’m a lo-ot like her,” Ruby shudders in her arms, and Saphron adjusts her hold. “But I don’t e-even remember her. J-Just s-small memories. Her smile, her laugh, and that used to be en-nough, but n-now? Now I know she w-was fighting the same fight w-we are and she lo-ost. And I-I’m the one left to win this f-fight. I j-just... I need her here.” 

“Sometimes,” Saphron begins slowly, cautiously. “Sometimes parents think that the best thing they can do for their children is to leave them, that doing so will preserve their futures. It doesn’t always work out that way, but the intention is almost always… _always_ to return home when they know their children’s futures are safe.

“I think it’s safe for me to assume that your mother knew you would be a strong, brave girl. She saw the hero that she knew you could be. It might’ve been an awful choice to make so early, but she knew that eventually, someone out there would need her help more than you. Because you’re your mother’s daughter. That doesn’t mean she loved and cared for you any less than the rest of the world. A mother could never… trust me.”

Ruby starts shaking like a leaf in a hurricane, but Saphron can feel her nodding on her shoulder. She’s still struggling with breathing, the tears still falling down her cheeks in a steady stream, so all they can do is sit there until Ruby finally starts to calm down. By this time, Saphron’s left shoulder is soaked in snot and tears.

Ruby notices and rubs her nose with one final sniff as she lifts her head. “S-sorry.” She croaks. “Your shirt’s all gross.”

Saphron waves her hand dismissively. “Has anyone ever told you you apologize too much?”

Ruby smiles weakly. “Only about a million times… and that’s just from Weiss.”

Saphron chuckles, and checks the time on her scroll. It reads 4 am, which means that Terra will be getting up in about half an hour for work. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to fall back asleep.” Ruby admits.

“Well, not on the floor you’re not,” Saphron insists. “Terra needs to get to work in about half an hour anyways, and I’m already awake. If you wait until then, you can sleep in our bed undisturbed. I’ll tell the others not to bother you. It’s obvious you haven’t been sleeping well.”

“Are you sure?” Ruby’s eyes widen. “You don’t need to- that’s your bed, and you have work at 9 and I’ve kept Adrian up all night-”

“You’ve done no such thing. He’s a baby. Babies wake up at shitty times. That’s normal. Please, I insist.”

Ruby lets her head fall to her chest resignedly. “Okay, but tomorrow night I’m back on the floor.”

“Until I tell your team about your little nightmare problem.”

“Wait, no please, don’t say anything-”

Saphron arches an eyebrow with concerned amusement. “Why don’t you want to tell your team you’ve been having nightmares?”

Ruby bites her lip. “Because it’s not their problem, and-”

“It’s not healthy to keep these things bottled up, Ruby.”

“But… I’m supposed to be the leader. If I’m not always performing at my best, then why would anyone even bother to follow?”

“Whoever told you that is an idiot,” Saphron snaps bluntly, and Ruby blinks at her. “Ruby… people follow you because they trust that you’ll make the right decisions. You don’t have to be perfect all the time. Trust goes both ways. You need to show them that you trust them with your feelings too.”

Ruby ponders, rubbing at tired eyes. “I’ll… think about it. I’m not sure I’m ready to talk about it yet anyways.”

“You’re right. You’re exhausted. I’ll go get you water and wait with you until Terra gets up for work.”

Saphron stands up, feeling her stiff bones cracking from sitting on the floor for so long. She makes it to the door and is about to round the corner into the hallway when Ruby calls out to her. “Saphron?”

Saphron turns her head back into the nursery. 

“Thank you,” Ruby says shyly. “You’re a great mom… and a great sister.”

She smiles back her appreciation, and leaves to retrieve the glass of water for her new little sister.

**Author's Note:**

> This started out being short but then turned into something more than intended but I’m still happy with the results! Actually cried briefly while writing it...
> 
> Just to clarify it was not my intention for Saphron to become a mother-figure for Ruby... that would be really weird considering she’s the sister closest to Jaune’s age, I believe. This is merely a chance for a mother to tell Ruby what her own mother might’ve been thinking when she left her as reassurance. That’s all. That’s why I kept pushing the sister thing towards the end. :) 
> 
> Hope you all enjoyed! This is the start of a series related to homey feelsy type stuff, the title of the series being inspired by a line in the volume 8 intro song. Expect more stuff in the series later! Comments and kudos are welcome and appreciated!


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